Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa has come out to say that his government embarked on massive construction of roads and stormwater drainage projects in Okpanam to check siltation emanating from flood in the community into Asaba.

He recently revealed this while speaking to newsmen after inspecting 28 internal roads in Okpanam, spanning over 11 kilometres and 20 kilometres of drains which have been completed and ready for inauguration.

According to him, the government embarked on the projects after a careful study by experts, and the erosion and flooding problems on Okpanam necessitated the construction of the roads.

He then urged those living in the area to stop dumping refuse in drains to avoid blockage of the water channels henceforth.

His words, “As a government, it is our duty to provide for all, both those within the main capital and others who are within the capital territory.”

“We have been tackling very major erosion and flooding problems in Asaba and most of the water normally come in from Okpanam.”

“In the study that was done, it was clear to us that beyond the storm drainage projects that we are doing, that we really need to pave as many roads as possible to be able to slow down the effect of siltation which was also causing a lot of problems, otherwise the very major drains that were constructed will become silted in a shortwhile.”

“Having done the study, it became obvious that many of the roads in Okpanam will need to have drains into the main drain at Okpanam road and from there it will connect to the major sewage which takes us down to the rivers.”

“It’s not just enough to do the drains, it has to be followed with the pavement of the roads and that’s why you have these several network of roads that have been paved and you can see that each of them has drains on both sides and the roads are fully paved.”

“You can see that this area cannot be truly a suburb anymore; you have seen the kind of development that is going on along the various road projects that we have trekked through.”

“I believe that Asaba and Okpanam have now become twin-towns even though they belong to two different local government areas.”

“Many of our civil servants and many persons who also work in Asaba also live in Okpanam, so the capital territory is growing and it’s important that whatever development we are doing in Asaba, we should also impact very strongly on the development in the towns that are adjoining to it.”